Combination toothbrush and pick

ABSTRACT

The disclosure herein is of a sanitized, disposable, tooth cleaning article which includes a nonsplintering handle, having a pick portion formed at one end, which portion is normally confined within a foamed plastic scrub member, designed to scrub and clean the teeth as a toothbrush, the handle being adhered to the member in such manner as to facilitate projection of the pick portion therefrom when the member is manipulated to cause the pick to enter the interstices between teeth for particle removal whilst the scrub member conforms to and moves over the surfaces of the teeth adjacent such interstices simultaneously cleaning those surfaces.

limited States Patent Helios-d 1 Mar. 7, 1972 [54] COMBINATIONTOOTHBRUSH AND 211 App]. No.: 4,568

[52] US. CL ..15/ll8, 132/93 [51] Int. Cl. ..A47k 7/02, A6lc 15/00 [58]Field ofSearch ..15/ll8,2l0; 132/89, 93;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,997,877 4/1935 Spanel..l32/89 2,667,655 2/1954 Ha1ford,.lr ..l5/21OX 3,078,856 2/1963 Benderet al ..132/93 Primary Examiner-Leon G. Machlin Attorney-Robb and RobbABSTRACT The disclosure herein is of a sanitized, disposable, toothclean ing article which includes a nonsplintering handle having a pickportion formed at one end, which portion is normally confined within afoamed plastic scrub member, designed to scrub and clean the teeth as atoothbrush, the handle being adhered to the member in such manner as tofacilitate projection of the pick portion therefrom when the member ismanipulated to cause the pick to enter the interstices between teeth forparticle removal whilst the scrub member conforms to and moves over thesurfaces of the teeth adjacent such interstices simultaneously cleaningthose surfaces.

SCIaimgSDraWingFigures PAIENIEDMAR 7 I972 Fig. I

IN VEN TOR. @Eo/QGE 6491. FORD BY COMBINATION TOOTIIBRUSII AND PICKOBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is a particular object of the instantinvention to provide a disposable article which is useful for cleaningteeth and incorporates therein the equivalent of a toothpick, so thatparticles which may be lodged between the teeth and in the intersticesthereof, may be removed without damaging the teeth, and in fact withoutthe necessity for a separate article for such purposes.

A more particular object of the invention is to provide an article ofthe class described, in which the pick for particle removal isincorporated in the portion which effects the scrubbing action on theteeth in such a manner as to be concealed substantially therewithin sothat in normal use of the article, usual manipulation for cleaning mostof the surfaces of the teeth may be resorted to, but in specificinstances where particles are present, the pick portion may be projectedoutwardly from the scrubbing portion of the article so that theparticles may be removed in each case, whilst the scrubbing article isin engagement with the surfaces adjacent the area in which the articlesmay be lodged and thereby effects a specific and local cleaning actionduring such manipulation.

Another object of the invention is to provide an article of the classdescribed, in which a handle is provided, which handle incorporates atone end thereof the pick portion, the handle being formed ofnonsplintering material such as rolled, hard-waxed paper, and the pickportion being formed in any particular manner so as to have a spadelikeconfiguration which will effect the particle removal as desired, butwhich is normally concealed within and shielded by the special scrubbingportion of the article, but may be extended or projected as requiredwhen necessary.

Other and further objects of the invention will be un derstood from aconsideration of the specification appended hereto, and disclosed in thedrawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the article of this invention,showing the handle. and scrub member thereon, with dotted linesindicating the position of the pick portion within the scrub member.

FIG. 2 is an end view from the right-hand end of FIG. 1, showing theconfiguration of the scrub member.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are top and side views respectively, of the spadelikeportion of the handle in enlarged detail, being fragmentary views,

FIG. 5 is a somewhat diagrammatic view, indicating a member of use ofthe article in effecting particle removal as related to the teeth in alower jaw, for example.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to FIG. 1, the article hereofconsists of an elongated handle I, which is preferably for the purposeshereof, formed of hard-waxed, rolled paper, providing a stiff yetsomewhat flexible handle and one which does not have any potentialsplinters such as a wooden handle might have, and which further may beof generally sanitary nature, the end of said handle 1 being indicatedin FIGS. 3 and 4, having a formed portion indicated at 2, which is ofspadelike nature, provided by grinding the end of the handle 1, so thatit is in side elevation as shown in FIG. 4, and tapered to asubstantially fine tip indicated at 3 which is relatively wide assuggested at 3 in FIG. 3.

After this is formed as indicated, suitable plastic is placed thereonand by pressure thereby creates the form portion indicated which willhold its shape and be effective for particle removal as is to bedescribed hereinafter.

Suitably arranged on the same end of the handle 1, is a scrub member 4,which is comprised of a polyester-urethane derivative selected for firm,crisp compression. One of the bases for establishing the compression asfirm and crisp is the density of the material, and in this instance thedensity of the material measured in weight per cubic foot is indicatedas being approximately 2 lbs. per cubic foot.

Such a material has a large area of windows against nonwindows socalled, although the description might might be said to be open spacesand closed areas.

As indicated in FIG. 2, this scrub member 4 is an elongated fluted bodyhaving the 7 apices as suggested at 5, this having been found to providethe most suitable type of surface to present to the teeth for effectinga cleansing action thereon.

This polyester-urethane derivative is sanitized so as to resistbacterial development and thereby provides for a unitary article whichmight be packaged for one-time use and disposed of thereafter.

As indicated in FIG. 1, the handle 1 is positioned within the scrubmember 4 so that the end 3 of the spadelike formed portion 2 iscontained in a recess R and terminates very close to the end surface 6of the brush member 4; but nevertheless is spaced sufficiently far fromsuch surface that during normal use the pick portion or spadelikeportion 2 will not usually (except under extreme conditions) contact anyportion of the interior of the mouth, unless specifically intended so todo.

In other words, the material of which the scrub member 4 is formed issufficiently resistant to deformation as to normally prevent this, butat the same time resilient enough so that when desired, the spadelikeportion 2 of the handle I may be manipulated as indicated in FIG. 5 soas to extend into the interstices of the teeth such as 7 and 8, beingteeth in the lower jaw and represented somewhat schematically.

As indicated in this FIG. 5, the spadelike portion 2 and par ticularlythe end 3 thereof, has been inserted between the teeth 7 and 8, and inso doing caused to project from the scrub member 4 in view of theresilience thereof and the fact that there is a suitable opening usuallysuch as R in such scrub member for this purpose.

It will be further apparent that the end 6 of the scrub member 4 isthereby brought into close and cleaning contact with the surfaces of theteeth 7 and 8 between which the pick portion 2 has been inserted. Fromthis, it will be noted that suitable manipulation to remove any particlesuch as would be effected by this manipulation, at the same timeprovides for the movement of the end surface 6 over the face of theteeth so as to clean them at the same time in a particular manner.

In order to provide additional flexibility over that inherently involvedin the provision of the material from which the article hereof isformed, and specifically the scrub member 4 of such article, a pair ofperipheral grooves 10 and II are provided as indicated in FIG. I, sothat when the scrub member 4 is at repose, there is a slight spacingbetween the sections a, b, and 0, although the member is in factintegral, since the grooves do not extend all the way to the handle 1thereof.

The advantage of these grooves 10 and II is to enable the flexing of therespective section a, b, and c, and as illustrated particularly in FIG.5 when the section 0 is in engagement with the teeth such as 7 and 8,and in this case particularly it is noted in respect to the tooth 8,thesection c will be permitted to flex over and extend farther intoengagement with the surface of the tooth 8. There is thus tended to befonned a sort of V-shaped opening indicated at 12 in FIG. 5, althoughnecessarily somewhat exaggerated in extent, provided by the flexing ofthe section c.

Onthe opposite side of the section and in engagement with the tooth7,.the portion of the section c which is in engagement with said tooth,is permitted to flex similarly and extend around the surface of thetooth 7 because the groove 11 permits additional compression andmovement of this portion of the section c.

The groove 10 will likewise provide additional flexiblity without at thesame time depriving the entire scrub member 4 of its desired action incleaning the teeth when it is used as a conventional toothbrush so thatfluted bodyand particularly the apices thereof may be used inlongitudinal contact with the teeth or otherwise manipulated so as toeffect cleaning thereof.

It is of course clear that the scrub member 4 is suitably adhered to thehandle 1 so as to be maintained in the condition indicated under use,and of course by suitable material which is in itself sanitized orsufficiently so as to prevent bacterial development.

In view of the foregoing, it will be clear that the article set forthherein may be manipulated in many diflerent ways so as to removeparticles between teeth irrespective of location thereof, and in sodoing provide for cleansing the surfaces of the teeth adjacent theinterstices in which the particles may be lodged.

lclaim:

I. A dental pick, comprising a. a rigid rodlike handle member (1)terminating at one end in a reduced sharp tip portion (2) adapted forinsertion in the interstices between teeth to remove food particlestherefrom; and

b. a generally cylindrical scrub member (4) formed of a compressiblesynthetic foam material adapted to conform to the surfaces of teethduring the cleaning thereof, said scrub member containing a centrallongitudinal cylindrical through bore the diameter of which correspondsgenerally with that of said handle member, said scrub member beingmounted concentrically on said handle member at a position in which theextremity (3) of said tip portion is contained within said bore inaxially inwardly spaced relation relative to the end surface (6) of saidscrub member, said reduced sharp tip portion being spaced radiallyinwardly from the adjacent wall surface of said bore to define acylindrical recess (R), whereby said tip portion is freely spaced aboutits circumference from said bore wall and is normally concealed in aninoperative position within said recess to prevent inadvertentengagement of said tip portion with the mouth of the user, said scrubmember containing in its outer periphery a circumferential groove (11)axially spaced from said end surface to define a flexible annular endsection (c) containing said recess, whereby upon axial compression ofsaid annular end section by the teeth, said end section is caused toflex to cause said tip portion to extend in an operative positionaxially beyond said end surface.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said scrub member containson its outer periphery a plurality of circumferentially arrangedlongitudinally extending flutes, and further wherein said synthetic foammaterial comprises a polyester urethane derivative having a density ofabout 2 pounds per cubic foot.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein said handle member comprisesa stiff flexible roll of hard waxed paper, the end of said handle memberbeing squeezed to cause said tip portion to have a spadelikeconfiguration.

1. A dental pick, comprising a. a rigid rodlike handle member (1)terminating at one end in a reduced sharp tip portion (2) adapted forinsertion in the interstices between teeth to remove food particlestherefrom; and b. a generally cylindrical scrub member (4) formed of acompressible synthetic foam material adapted to conform to the surfacesof teeth during the cleaning thereof, said scrub member containing acentral longitudinal cylindrical through bore the diameter of whichcorresponds generally with that of said handle member, said scrub memberbeing mounted concentrically on said handle member at a position inwhich the extremity (3) of said tip portion is contained within saidbore in axially inwardly spaced relation relative to the end surface (6)of said scrub member, said reduced sharp tip portion being spacedradially inwardly from the adjacent wall surface of said bore to definea cylindrical recess (R), whereby said tip portion is freely spacedabout its circumference from said bore wall and is normally concealed inan inoperative position within said recess to prevent inadvertentengagement of said tip portion with the mouth of the user, said scrubmember containing in its outer periphery a circumferential groove (11)axially spaced from said end surface to define a flexible annular endsection (c) containing said recess, whereby upon axial compression ofsaid annular end section by the teeth, said end section is caused toflex to cause said tip portion to extend in an operative positionaxially beyond said end surface.
 2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1,wherein said scrub member contains on its outer periphery a plurality ofcircumferentially arranged longitudinally extending flutes, and furtherwherein said synthetic foam material comprises a polyester urethanederivative having a density of about 2 pounds per cubic foot. 3.Apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein said handle member comprises astiff flexible roll of hard waxed paper, the end of said handle memberbeing squeezed to cause said tip portion to have a spadelikeconfiguration.